Monday musical mayhem
- Sam & Dave, “Soul Man.” Some days, the world is on serendipitous shuffle play. This tune popped up on the radio Saturday while I was enjoying a pleasant afternoon out and about with some friends, where we traded trivia tidbits about Stax’s perpetually squabbling duo while singing along. And here it is again, popping up right away for Monday’s blog shuffle. If this is what randomness sounds like, I’m all for it.
- Madonna, “Keep It Together.” Madonna’s no longer the controversy magnet she was back in the ’80s and ’90s . . . but I was always struck by the ways that, even then, there was this ridiculously obvious instant public amnesia about her music. Despite numerous tracks like this one — e.g., big hits that weren’t even remotely scandalous — the dominant discourse around Her Materialness always suggested that everything she did was dripping with deliberately button-pushing smut and sacrilege. Like this infectiously danceable groove about the virtues of holding on to one’s family “forever and ever.”
- Louis Armstrong, “A Kiss to Build a Dream On.” A sweet little burst of tenderness and love . . . and some mighty fine horn-blowing from Satch, too.
- Bonnie Raitt, “Love Letter.” Second verse, same as the first? Arguably, this is the same basic theme as the previous track — an ode to those first thrilling yet scary (or is that the other way around?) feelings of a newly born love — though the groove here is more bottleneck blues than Dixieland jazz. On a not-quite-related note, I can never hear the chorus of this song without thinking of Marilyn Monroe. Asked about what she had on when she posed for Playboy, Monroe allegedly quipped “the radio.”
- Nat Kendricks & the Swans, “Mashed Potatoes.” An early ’60s R&B dance groove from Atlantic. A little goofy. A little silly. But that’s not a bad thing at all, is it?
- Skyliners, “Since I Don’t Have You.” A classic old tearjerker. And a great roadtrip sing-along tune, at least for the closing thirty seconds or so of over-the-top wailing, screaming, keening, repetition of “you, you, you.” Highly cathartic, even when you’re not going through heartbreak.
- Mojo Nixon & Jello Biafra, “Plastic Jesus.” Mojo and Jello: two great tastes that taste great together. This probably isn’t the sort of track you want booming out of your system when you show up for Sunday services . . . but, then again, if you’re the type to take Sunday services seriously, you’re not likely to have this one in your musical library anyway.
- Huey “Piano” Smith & the Clowns, “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu.” If there had never been an Elvis Presley . . . well, Huey “Piano” Smith probably wouldn’t have taken his place. But rock’n'roll could very easily have come to be a piano-centric music (think Little Richard, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis). And tracks like this one would hold a much higher place in the canon.
- Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Sorry. I’ve got nothing to say here right now. I’m too busy thinkin’ ’bout the simple beauties of this song. (And how painfully Diana Ross’ talking-not-singing version destroys those beauties. Okay, maybe that’s something to say after all.)
- Bonnie Raitt, “You Got to Know How.” It must be a Bonnie morning ’round here. And I can certainly live with that.
0 comments Monday 16 Feb 2009 | Gil | Music
